On the other side of the wall from my house is the most ENORMOUS avo tree - it’s probably about 3 storeys tall. The ginormous avos it religiously produces every year are too high to pick so they come crashing down, into my garden or onto my neighbours tin roof, from a dizzy height - usually before they’re ripe …… Until last year this had only caused some near misses and things going badly-bumpy in the middle of the night. (I have learned that I can, and do, levitate - but so far have not achieved this in a meditative state. I have also learned to hit the panic button to call out the Security Company unnecessarily, but don’t tell them that!). Last year, however, I came to understand why that Avo tree is there and that it has a deeper significance than just dropping unripe avos: I find myself being referred to as a “Pip” and working with an organisation that associates itself with avocado pears. Quite where that leaves me in relation to near misses and panic buttons I have yet to discover, but no doubt I shall find out.

I don’t spend much time at Avo - but love it when I do. The vibe is funky and relaxed. (And then there’s the view from the conference venue ……). Last time I was there to do a workshop I found myself standing in the kitchen quartering and de-pipping apples, amongst other equally unlikely things. Well, I guess that’s acceptable considering I wasn’t wreaking the same ‘de-pipping’ havoc on some poor unsuspecting Avo Visionary and rendering them brainless. (Oh, I use puns and word play as part of my sense of humour routine, so you might want to re-read that bearing in mind that my head was called a “pip” when I was ankle-high to a grasshoper.)

Add to that that someone had to challenge my techno-resistance so here I am blogging on the Avo Website. There are those who would be amazed. Frankly, when it comes to technology I have used my girl status to the max and made extortionate use of my techno-whizzy friends and the techno-fascinated children in my life both to fix my technology and to figure out how it works (who writes those incomprehensible user-unfriendly manuals?). I can’t relate to technology - the logic is just a bit too logical for me to grasp, I don’t like the lack of direct person-to-person contact, there’s no “touchy-feely” stuff. In fact, until last year I used to use a paper-based diary. Now I have this cellphone a horrified friend (ex-friend?) recommended that does everything. It drives me up a wall with meeting reminders, birthday reminders, SMS notifications and goodness knows what else. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with the myriads of pencils and erasers that lurk around in my life now that they are no longer needed to manage my diary. I tried Sudoku to give them a new lease on life, but that didn’t last long before Sudoku bored me. Now that I know I can do it I have no need to do any more - unless I have to (thank you, Grant!). Time to master something else new and different.

Hmmm….. I guess I just gave myself away! Yup, when something is new and different and requires me to understand, learn, grow, develop new skills,etc. I give it my all - I’m off on a mission. And boy-oh-boy do I get focused when I’m on a mission - if I had it my way, everything else in my life would come to a standstill. However, the phones ring, the meeting reminders blare, my bed calls, my stomach threatens to eat my backbone, the laundry has to be done, the stuff of life makes demands and I have to pull myself away. Once I’ve gotten and mastered something, though, I get bored - horribly quickly and it’s time to move on to something else. Big long-term, projects are not my forte - I have a hard time finishing them. That’s why I love coaching and facilitating - the people make sure that no two processes are ever the same. So although I’m “doing” the same thing all the time, the variety that people bring to the process keep it alive and fascinating for me.

My Strengths profile tells me that my top five strengths are Ideation, Strategic, Input, Command and Self-Assurance. Rather an odd profile for someone who works with people all of the time. Well, I reckoned so until I started exploring it. In a nutshell those strengths help me to see patterns in situations, people’s behaviour and their experiences - the “bigger picture” of what the world is like if I were standing in their shoes. And I put that on the table. You’d be amazed at the insights and “Aha’s” that brings up. I’m not afraid to gently and firmly confront what needs to be confronted or to say what needs to be said. The oysters open to reveal the pearls, the skin comes off the avo and flesh is peeled away to reveal the pip which has the potential to grow and flourish. And then I stand in awe and wonder as others recognise their own potential, nourish and nurture it into life and change their lives. I have seen people spread their wings and fly. The pure magic and miracle of that process consistently amazes and inspires me. It’s my “WOW”, my passion. Whoever said that magic and miracles don’t exist didn’t know what they were talking about - I see it every day in the people and world around me. And then, of course, no two people are the same which is what makes the world go around for me, which is why those strengths underpin my people skills.

It’s no wonder that technology doesn’t blow my hair back. So I tolerate this SMS, e-mail, internet thing because it’s convenient but given the choice …………. Now I find myself blogging having never even visited a chat room never mind had a chat to some stranger who is somehow in my space whilst not actually being here at all. It all just feels and seems rather disconnected to me (not that I can recall when I last availed myself of snail-mail to communicate with overseas friends and business associates - sucker for practical mission-supportive conveniences that I am!).

So, if you’re reading this, here I am in your space whilst actually being somewhere else. Re-defining my girl multi-tasking skills (which are only in evidence when I’m not missioning - and that’s not too often!).